Top 10 key films of the noughties

Top 10 key films of the noughties

It was the decade of zombies, dudes and grizzlies – Peter Bradshaw rounds up his key releases of the noughties

Monday 7 December 2009 04.49 EST
First published on Monday 7 December 2009 04.49 EST

11’09’’01 (dirs. Samira MAKHMALBAF et al, 2002) A collection of short films, this was the first explicit cinematic response to 9/11. Ken Loach’s contribution, about the Kissinger-backed Pinochet coup, was criticised for anti-Americanism, irrelevance and bad taste. But shortly afterwards, Dr Kissinger declined Bush’s offer to lead an investigation into 9/11 intelligence failures, citing “conflicts of interest” which he refused to explain

SAW (dir. James WAN) This excellent horror filmushered in an interminable parade of dull sequels and cemented Hollywood’s reverence for the “franchise”— a word first used ironically, then in earnest: a series of films whose importance was not narrative development, but just replicating a successful product. Harry Potter did it for children; Saw did it for grown-ups

CITY OF GOD (dir. Fernando MEIRELLES, 2002) This sensational movie set in the violent favelas of Rio set a new benchmark for complex storytelling, super-charged realism and violence. Its success at the Cannes film festival in 2002 caused a ruction between Meirelles and Kátia Lund, the documentary-maker who workshopped scenes with the young actors and who had been given a confusing, separate “co-director” credit

WALTZ WITH BASHIR (dir. Ari FOLMAN, 2008) The noughties saw a huge leap in digital animation, particularly from Pixar studio. Others, like Robert Zemeckis, experimented with “motion-capture” technology, while Richard Linklater and Bob Sabiston investigated the mesmeric “rotoscope” technique. Ari Folman’s semi-autobiographical film about the 1982 Lebanese war was one such: a hyperreal nightmare flashback

FREDDY GOT FINGERED (dir. Tom GREEN, 2001) Proof that even in an ironic age which treasures so-bad-it’s-good shlock, there are some films which are just itals/bad/. This unbelievably crass grossout comedy was so awful it drove a stake through the heart of Canadian MTV comic Tom Green’s career - so something good came of it

GRIZZLY MAN (dir. Werner HERZOG, 2005) Film historians may yet come to see this as the decade’s best documentary, and Herzog’s finest hour. The advances in digital home cameras meant many ordinary people had great raw material for extraordinary movies: one such was Timothy Treadwell, an eccentric environmentalist who was eaten by one of the grizzly bears he lived among

ME AT THE ZOO (dir. Jawed KARIM, April 23 2005). The first film uploaded to YouTube lasts 19 seconds, and shows YouTube co-founder Karim at the elephant house at San Diego zoo. As significant a moment as the Lumière brothers’ 50-second film The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station in 1895

SERIOUSLY DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR? Throughout the noughties, this non-existent sequel was part urban myth, part web-borne mirage, driven by a great idea for a title. Dude Where’s My Car? was the 2000 stoner comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott. Then someone had the “seriously” idea and the joke spread like wildfire. Despite denials, many still think “Seriously” does exist, and friends of friends have seen it. It might get made in 2010

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (dir. Edgar WRIGHT, 2004) While Lottery-backed films like Sex Lives of the Potato Men made British cinemagoers retch with shame, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s sparky comedy gave us something to cheer about

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (dir. Mel GIBSON, 2004) Mel Gibson put his own money into this gorily explicit story of Christ’s passion, with dialogue in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic. Many were uneasy at its treatment of the Jews. We wondered: was Gibson antisemitic? Then, in July 2005, he was pulled over by a traffic cop at whom he yelled: “Fucking Jews. Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?” That seemed to settle it